In the merchandising of articles, especially those purchased for gift purposes, it is necessary for the seller to provide a wrapping that is neat and attractive. This necessitates the maintenance of an expensive inventory of boxes of various sizes and other accessories such as tissue paper and ribbon. Further, considerable time is consumed when an article is wrapped following the usual procedures, and this time factor results in an excessively expensive wrapping operation and causes unhappy customers who must wait in line to have their items gift wrapped. It is an object of the present invention to provide a gift wrapping procedure that is economical and can be carried out relatively quickly.
In general the gift wrapping system of the present invention involves the use of a mold in which the article is encapsulated by a covering of rigid plastic foam. In one form, the mold features side walls that may be adjusted relative to each other to vary the size of the enclosure defined by the mold and also, the invention concerns the use of mold members of magnetic material which are effective to hold themselves in selected positions.
Molds which have adjustable side walls have been proposed for some time and are disclosed in the patents of Scheelky, U.S. Pat. No. 896,330, to Neistradt, U.S. Pat. No. 1,678,266, to Nicoli, U.S. Pat. No. 3,109,361, to Arps, U.S. Pat. No. 3,788,591, to Powers et al., U.S. Pat. No. 3,867,501, and to Theodorsen, U.S. Pat. No. 3,999,736. The patent to Isenberg, U.S. Pat. No. 2,032,483 discloses an insert for varying the depth of a mold, and the Swiss Pat. No. 276706 discloses a cover for a mold. The use of magnetic materials to hold building elements in selected positions is disclosed in the patents to Lepper, U.S. Pat. No. 3,196,579 and Fayling, U.S. Pat. No. 3,897,288. None of these patents disclose the adjustable mold of the present invention and particularly do not suggest the novel efficient means for directing material into the mold nor do they suggest the means for varying the height of the molded mass that is effectively employed in the gift wrapping system of the invention.